Tuesday, March 31, 2020

Adios, March


Anise Swallowtail on Checkerbloom

As we say "Adios" to the most surreal March of our lives, I thought I'd post some favorite bird and butterfly images -- the lighter side of nature -- from the month of March in years past.


Townsend's Warbler



Green Hairstreak



Fox Sparrow



Pipevine Swallowtail



Yellow-Rumped Warbler



White-Crowned Sparrow



Allen's Hummingbird



Red-Winged Blackbird



Scrub Jay



Long-Billed Curlew




Although my wife and I are both working from home, there is enough down time even during the workday that it's good to have a book to pick up. On my wife's recommendation I started sheltering in place with Frank Herbert's Dune. I finally finished it on Saturday, and we streamed the movie that night after a dinner of rice with baked tofu and broccoli, generously spiced.

On Sunday I picked The Forest Unseen, A Year's Watch in Nature by David George Haskell, which I'm re-reading. I was going to photograph it on the ground in our garden, but it was too wet. The bird bath, with antler and quartz crystal from Mt. Tamalpais and Buddha from a friend, seemed appropriate because the book starts off with a description of a Tibetan sand mandala and segues into the circle of life that the author will study for a year. 

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